Mass graves in Libya: Brutality at its peak

An independent fact-finding mission has found evidence of people kidnapped, tortured, and killed in the western Libyan town of Tarhuna in a mass grave, and the mission suspects that there are other mass graves.

Mohamed Auajjar, chair of the UN Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, stated that a culture of impunity represents “a great obstacle” to national reconciliation and justice for the victims. He emphasized that more than 200 individuals are still missing from Tarhuna and the surrounding area. Some were abducted, according to the UN. 

Testimonies of local people are included in the 51-page report by the mission to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on how the killings were executed. The report mentioned that there might be up to 100 undiscovered mass graves, adding that the crimes were carried out by the Kaniat militia operated by seven brothers between 2016 and 2020. The Libyan authorities have already recovered 247 bodies in the town. Many of the dead bodies were blindfolded and handcuffed, and the victims included disabled people, women, and children, according to Gulf Today.  

It is worth mentioning that on June 22, 2020, the HRC established the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya (FFM) by resolution 43/39 to investigate violations and abuses of human rights throughout Libya by all parties since the beginning of 2016, and to prevent a further deterioration of the human rights situation, the UN stated.

The mission used satellite imagery showing signs of soil disturbances among other evidence to identify three new likely sites. However, there could be many more. FFM members said they intend to submit further evidence, a final report, and a confidential list of individual suspects to the HRC next year, Reuters reported. 

The FFM has asked the Libyan authorities to continue to search for more mass graves. Moreover, the HRC is considering a resolution to extend the life of the FFM by another nine months, according to Gulf Today. 

History 

Libya has experienced a breakdown ever since leader Muammar Qaddafi was overthrown in 2011 and killed.

The Kaniat militia was aligned with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) but is now with the eastern Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Khalifa Haftar, which tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the GNA administration, Reuters reported. 

The fact that the Kaniat militia was with both the ruling factions at one time or another makes it evident that the killings did not happen in secret. The Kaniat is among other examples of groups who are terrorising civilian populations in many countries in Africa, according to Gulf Today.

Over a decade, the Kaniat militia terrorized and executed more than one thousand Tarhuna civilians, with approximately 650 of the executions occurring from April 2019 to June 2020 under a partnership with LNA. There is evidence of many victims being bound and buried alive, including women and children. Survivors recalled torture, electrocution, and intense beatings by the militia, including executions for refusing to join the group, according to the Libyan American Alliance. 

Brutality of mass graves 

Reuters reported that Libya's ruling National Transitional Council declared in 2011 that it had found a mass grave containing the remains of more than 1,270 people killed by the security forces of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in the 1996 massacre in Abu Salim prison in the capital, Tripoli.

In a mass grave in Zliten (50 km west of Misurata), the remains of Abdel Baset al-Zawawi’s body were found in 2013, along with the bodies of his neighbors’ children, who were kidnapped on the same day in March 2011 following an attack by Gaddafi’s brigades on their neighborhood. His identity was verified by his family, according to correspondents.

Despite the difficulties of discovering mass graves left by Gaddafi's brigades without any indicative marks and identifying the identities of those buried there, the DNA lab, which was established in February 2021 in Tripoli, was able to identify seventeen missing persons after discovering their bodies in separate graves, correspondents reported. 

For its part, the General Authority for Research and Identification of Missing Persons in Libya discovered in 2021 three graves in Al Qabinah on the Abdali Road in Tarhuna, in the northwest of the country. The authority announced the withdrawal of 1,349 DNA samples from the families of the missing during 2020, according to RT Online. 

In 2021, the GNA discovered about 27 mass graves in Tarhuna, 93 kilometers southeast of the capital Tripoli, after expelling the Kaniat militia. Since the Kaniat militia took control over Tarhuna, the residents of the city reported about 338 cases of disappearances, which the militia carried out against its opponents. Most of the persons disappeared during the battles that took place in the period between April 2019 and June 2020, according to ReliefWeb. 

Since June 2021, the Research and Identification of Missing Persons discovered about 120 corpses, including those of children and women. Some of the discovered graves contained whole bodies, while others contained only body parts, most of which were found in the agricultural zone, ReliefWeb reported.